Shining Heaven
by fairybloom
Summary: Willow moves to Japan and discovers a new world of Hellmouthy proportions.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

TITLE: Shining Heaven

AUTHOR: fairybloom

EMAIL:

DISTRIBUTION: Twisting the Hellmouth, anyone else please ask.

SPOILERS: up to season 2 for Buffy, all Bleach season just in case

RATING: FR18

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Bleach. Buffy belongs to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. Bleach belongs to Mr. Kubo. No infringement intended.

A/N: Hello to all. I know I shouldn't be starting another story, but I couldn't get this plot bunny out of my head.

A/N: Instead of Buffy starting in their sophomore year, it was freshman year. Willow is 16. Buffy ran to LA after Becoming, but came back after a day or two.

Chapter 1

Willow would like to pretend that she was shocked as she watched her parents gather their suit cases and carry-on's.

What she was really surprised at, was the fact that it had taken them this long to leave again.

The Dr.'s Rosenberg had handed her a credit card and had made sure their daughter had what ever she would need to live in her new home and were now planning to escape to their year long tour of Far Eastern and European Diagnosis. The two would be traveling to different hospitals and conference halls, meeting other psychiatric doctors and doing whatever the hell it was they did when they were gone.

It had been a whole eight days since Willow and her parents had arrived in Karakura Town, Japan. The house they had moved into was a decent size and there was a clinic next door. She and her mother had gone to enroll her in school just the day before.

She had had to take an entrance exam to place her scholastic aptitude.

And be measured for a uniform.

Willow was so pissed that she was beyond words.

Uprooted months from finishing her sophomore year, from her friends, her first boyfriend, and the only home she'd ever remembered, to move to the opposite side of the globe.

All because her mother, in a very healthy mental display of denial, had warped her ending up in the hospital during the whole Angel/ Angelus thing, into a more palatable memory of god knew what and insisted on moving her daughter to a more safe and mentally challenging environment. If they had to leave on an extended trip, they could not, in good conscience, leave her there in Sunnydale.

Not with all the gangs, and crime running amok.

But apparently, it was ok to leave her alone in Japan of all places.

Since they had already been scheduled for the year long tour, they had told her to pack, handed her a few books on learning Japanese and told her that even though they were a bad influence on her, she could say good-bye to that boy and that Bunny person.

When Willow had demanded to know when she'd be coming back to Sunnydale, her mother had looked at her sternly and said, "You're not."

Temper barely checked, Willow had turned on her heel and stormed out of the house.

The walk over to the library and then the meeting with the rest of the scooby gang was still a tear soaked blur.

Thankfully, she had had Oz, Buffy, and Xander to lean on. She probably would have fallen apart without those three to help keep her together emotionally. They had stayed with her late into the night, until she had to go back to her, all of a sudden loving parents.

The house had gone on the market a week later. Her parents were entrusting the sale to the realtor, who had also set up the deal for buying the house in Karakura Town.

Apparently, it was an excellent time to buy real-estate in Japan.

No amount of begging, arguing, or threatening had changed their minds.

In fact, it had seemed to anger them that she wasn't being more mature about things. Willow's mother had said they had raised her to be more responsible, she should behave her age and stop hassling them.

Willow had been so agitated at their indifferent attitude towards her desire to remain in Sunnydale, she had growled in frustration, "How is it that you never hesitated on leaving me alone before this, but now you care or something?"

How one insolent question could completely change someones world, Willow would never know, but the answer her parents had given to her rhetorical question had definitely changed hers.

Deeming that since she had just turned sixteen, she was old enough to know the truth.

She had been adopted.

From New York no less.

Her parents had been in LA finishing up work for their doctorates, when they had both decided it was a suitable time in their lives together that they should start a family.

After a year of trying to conceive and failing, Ira and Shelia Rosenberg found that they couldn't have a baby on their own, so they had gone to an adoption agency.

Six months later they were bringing a brand new baby Willow home to their house in the suburbs a few hours outside of LA.

According to her parents, the agency had only been able to tell them that she had been found in a small park in New York City, across the street from a museum.

Her age had been estimated. And her birthday had been chosen based loosely by how old the doctor that had checked her over had deemed she was.

So, basically, in the space of a few days, she had lost everything.

Even her damn birthday.

Willow was brought out of her thoughts as her parents finished gathering their things, reminded her to get to school on time the next day and to stay out of trouble, nodded farewell and were out the door. She wouldn't see them in the flesh again for a year or more.

"Good," Willow muttered bitterly. "A year would be too soon, in my opinion."

She rolled her shoulders to ease the tension all her pent up anger was causing, and headed up the stairs to the second floor to finish unpacking her stuff and make a list of what she was going to need from the supermarket.

Entering her new room, she eyed the last of her unpacked boxes with distaste, grumbled and got to work.

A couple of hours later, and her room had started to look some what inviting. The late afternoon sunlight streamed in the lavender curtained windows and bathed everything in a warm, purple tinted glow.

Willow gave the room one last critical look and went to her desk to turn on her computer.

As she listened to the familiar sounds of the machine coming to life, she couldn't help but think of the numerous times she had searched the net for information for Buffy or Giles.

Needless to say, the scoobies hadn't been thrilled when she had told them she was moving. Outrage and tears had been the general consensus that wonderful afternoon.

Finished with loading up, the computer chimed to let her know that she had mail.

Steeling herself for the inevitable, she double clicked the envelope icon that had a small 36 in the corner and watched as the screen that popped up, filled with letter after letter from the Sunnydale crew.

Oz's letters were short, sweet, and painful. She could tell he missed her, but Willow was glad that she had been mature enough to break it off with him before she moved.

Buffy's were mainly themed in outrage and anger at Willow's parents. How could they just rip her away from them? The blonde had just gotten back from running away to LA, how was she going to cope without Angel and her best friend? How dare they be so callous about telling her about her adoption! How could they, after moving all the way to freaking JAPAN, then leave their daughter alone for an unholy amount of time?

Though she completely agreed with the Slayer's frustration, Willow moved on to Xander's letters, in hopes of reading something that would help cool her own anger and agitation.

Bittersweet feelings filled her eyes with tears as Xander's attempt to cheer her up and tell her that she was missed made pangs of homesickness overwhelm her.

Abruptly, she scrolled over and closed her mail, making all the painful but treasured words disappear. Willow wiped the tears from her eyes and sat back, trying to think of something to distract herself.

Her eyes roved the room a bit restlessly.

And landed on the old black leather trunk that sat at the foot of her bed.

It had been rather hard to ship this over with the rest of her belongings, but, some how she had smuggled a good chunk of her occult paraphernalia under her mother's suddenly too interested in her life nose.

She had to replenish some of her supplies, though. Unfortunately, she'd had to leave her herbs and athme with Giles.

She couldn't think of a good enough excuse to be able to bring the dagger overseas with her, so she had entrusted the ceremonial weapon with the Watcher until she could get it back from him.

Willow turned her attention back to the computer and opened her web browser. She plugged in a search for rare herbs and items shops in the area.

She scribbled down a couple of address's and realized she recognized one as being on the same street as the supermarket a few blocks away. She could see what they had to offer, then hit the market.

She changed out of the comfy maroon Sunnydale High sweatshirt and pants she had been wearing, into a nice pair of jeans and a pretty, dark green three-quarter length sleeved top. The material was soft and she liked the small added touch of satin that lined the collar.

As Cordelia would say, "Buffy had finally had an impact on her wardrobe. Thank God."

Willow smiled softly as she slipped on a pair of soft, brown leather boots, that had a touch of heel and a square-cut toe. Buffy had given them to her as a going away present. The blonde had said that it was Willow's duty to bring a touch of Californian fashion to Japan.

The girls had giggled when Buffy had shown her the hidden dagger sheaths in the tops and said, "Fashion and function, a slayer or slayerettes best defense."

She grabbed her purse off her desk and made sure she had the credit card her parents had given to her to buy groceries and such. She also made sure she had her secret knot of cash she had been saving and adding to over the years, in her hidden zipper compartment next to a couple of extra stakes and bottle or two of holy water.

Willow sighed in exasperation and brushed her long hair back behind her ear, then sighed again as it refused to obey and slithered forward again. Rolling her eyes at herself for making that ridicules promise to Buffy to not cut it, she grabbed her house keys and headed out.

The store was only a few blocks over and the weather was absolutely beautiful, so the walk was quite pleasant. She turned to look as she came upon the address she had written down and gave a little start to see that the shop was a quaint looking house, with it's front section set up as store.

Her eyes slowly read the sign hung above the door.

Urahara's Shop.

Thankful she had taken to reading and speaking Japanese better that she could write it, she walked down the driveway to the front and noticed that the door was slide open to allow the late afternoon sun in. She hesitated just inside the doorway to let her eyes adjust to the dimness.

There was no one around, so once she could see properly again, she walked over to the side and looked the merchandise over.

To an untrained eye, this store seemed to offer a quaint selection of rare herbs and trinkets, candy and simple groceries. But as she really looked closer, little things started to pique her curiosity.

They had all manor of plant life, dried, freshly picked, whole or cut, that she needed to replenish her own supplies. A nice selection of crystals for making elixirs and focuses. Even the 'tea' selections were put together in a manor that the herbs would be well suited to do a number of different decoctions.

Pleasantly surprised, Willow let out a deep sigh of relief as it became clear that she had hit pay dirt in finding this place.

An amused chuckling sounded behind her and she spun on her heel to see two men, who looked like complete opposites, standing in front of a doorway that lead deeper into the house.

The taller of the two towered over the other and had dark hair pulled back in a small ponytail. He looked to be in his late thirties to early forties, but he was still thickly muscled. He had a serious mustache attached to thick sideburns and glasses that were pushed up on his nose with a hand large enough to palm her face.

Trying not to gulp visibly, Willow looked over the other man quickly. He was half a foot taller than her, and still a good head shorter than the other man, and he had a slight build. His hair was blond and shaggy down past his chin.

He wore a semi-traditional black over green robe over loose fitting black pants. The weird, to her anyway, outfit was accompanied with a number of accessories that had her suppressing a grin.

Tall wooden slat-platform type sandals, one of the ugliest, stripped white and green hats she'd ever seen, a white fan stenciled with crimson and golden cherry blossoms, and a cane held in the hand without the fan.

"Um, hi," Willow said nervously as the two just continued to look at her. "I like your shop."

"Thank you. How can we be of service to such a pretty young lady?" the blonde replied.

"I noticed that you had a few things that I would be interested in buying. You have a great selection," she said with a smile.

Hat-guy just inclined his head in thanks and motioned to the tables, "What did you need?"

She turned and bit her lip as she studied the table. Willow knew exactly what she wanted but hesitated to answer, she felt like this guy was going to weigh what she said, and it made her uncomfortable.

She shook her head at herself ruefully, surprised at how weird she was being.

"Hmm, well, I needed," she began as she eyed the table, "thyme, rosemary, fever few, marigold petals, sage, thorn apple, lavender, a few silver ferns. A piece of rose quartz, amethyst, and citron. Oh, and clover, chamomile, and ginger and some clothe bandages," she finished with an absent nod.

The two men traded a quick glance with each other and the taller of the two moved forward and started to gather her order as the blonde said, "My name is Kisuke Urahara, the propitier of this fine shop. That was a very interesting shopping list. Not many people order those plants and crystals together. Are you interested in herbal healing?"

Giving him a soft smile for his effort to dance around his questions, she said, "Sort of. Some is for healing potions and elixirs, some is for protection charms and some is for tea. I'm Willow Rosenberg, by the way."

The tall man chuckled at her response, and Urahara smirked at her.

Remembering that she also needed an athme, she looked around the shop, but didn't see any blades. She wondered if they could recommend a shop to her. "I was wondering," she started, but hesitated. The blonde raised an eyebrow at her and she continued, "Would you know where I could buy an athme?"

He startled at her question and the big guy turned to look at her.

After an uncomfortable moment of him staring at her, Urahara said quietly but firmly, "Tessai."

The tall man, apparently Tessai, put down the bag he had gathered her purchases into and walked over to a cabinet set in the corner of the room. He motioned her over to take a look, and she slowly joined him. Their odd reaction had made her pause. Maybe she shouldn't have asked.

Her weirdness meter was starting to go off, and she didn't like it. She may have only helped Buffy for a couple of years or so on the hellmouth, but some things were already ingrained in her.

Keeping one eye on hat-guy, Willow stopped next to Tessai and looked into the cabinet. About a half dozen daggers were hung up on hooks on the back wall of the upright chest. There was a variety of different styles and lengths, but as soon as she saw the one hanging in the upper right corner, she knew that it was the one she wanted.

Her hand itched to hold the black hilt, with its thin silver wire twining down to the pummel cap. Her flesh yearned to see if its surface was as smooth and cool as it looked. To see if it's long, curve tipped blade was as sharp as it promised to be.

Every fiber in her called out for her to take the dagger, but she knew better than to just go grabbing at it. "May I?" she whispered to Tessai and gestured towards her dagger.

He reached in and took it up gently, then turned to her and held it out for her to take.

Her hand came up and grasped the hilt loosely, and as it settled into place, she felt as if it had always belonged there.

As if she had found a piece of herself.

Willow knew two things as soon as it came into contact with her skin.

One, that this blade would hold and store her energy, much better than the one she'd left in Sunnydale, and two, that the hilt was made of hematite. A stone that appeared to be pitch black with an odd off-silver shine, but in reality was a red so dark, it was like looking at dead blood.

She had always been sensitive to hematite.

As a child, she had gone to natural history museums, fascinated with the sections about minerals and plant life. She had loved learning about the amazing things that occurred in nature. But when they inevitably came to the part about crystals, she would be drawn to the hematite samples. Not the emeralds, not pretty rubies or diamonds, but hematite.

When she got older and started learning about the mystical arts, she had put her interest in plants to good use. Many of the same things people use in a normal, everyday capacity, she was learning to use in spells and healing potions.

If only she had known when she was a child that she would learn to use the pretty lion head looking marigolds she loved so much, for making a tincture to help ease a migraine or tooth ache, as well as make a protection charm that helped against psychic attack.

How to use lavender, sage and an amethyst to protect your home from invasion of evil spirits and intent.

So many things that could be used in an extra-ordinary way.

So of course she had researched the crystal that had always seemed to call to her. And she found that hematite had a trait it was very well known for in certain circles. It was always used to, "Surrender to your shadow self."

"That is correct," Tessai rumbled next to her, making Willow startle. She hadn't realized that she had said that last part out loud.

"So, how much for everything, including the dagger?" she craned her head around and asked Urahara. He gave her a mischievous smile, which he tried to cover by snapping his fan in front of his face.

When everything was paid for, Willow declined to have the dagger wrapped.

With both men watching curiously, she lifted her pant leg to expose the top of her right boot and slipped the blade into the holder like the damn thing had been made for it.

Thoroughly freaked out by this point, the red head gave a burst of nervous laughter as she lowered the material back down to hide the blade, then thanked the two frowning men, grabbed her bag of herbal goodies and left as quickly as she could.

"Kisuke...," Tessai murmured worriedly as he watched the young red haired girl flee down their driveway.

"I know," the blonde responded equally as worried.

The next morning Willow woke up just before the sun crested the horizon.

When she had gotten home the night prior, not wanting to deal with that days weirdness, she had put her groceries away, cooked herself a quick and light meal, cleaned up and went to bed.

But the first thing she thought of as she opened her eyes that morning, was of her reaction to her new athme. She'd read about some witches that had bonded with their ceremonial blades, but she had never thought to experience it herself.

She would have to bless and bind the new blade to herself before she could use it in any spell casting, but once she did, somehow she knew it would be a great help to focusing her power.

Unfortunately, she was still having problems controlling her magic. It seemed the only things that she didn't screw up with her spells, was her herb lore, potions, and restoring Angel's soul.

Willow glanced at her alarm clock and groaned to see that it wasn't even five yet. She rolled her eyes, and flung the covers off of herself.

She walked over to her trunk and opened the lid. After she retrieved the athme, she gathered up what she would need for starting the blessing for her new blade. And since she decided to do a full bonding with it, the ritual would be an all day thing.

The sooner she started, the sooner she could use it to help lay a protection ward around her new house. As it was, she'd have to carry the blade with her all day to keep it soaked in her energies, and before bed tonight, she'd have to do another circle to close the bonding.

So the boots Buffy had given to her, were going to come in handy today.

She padded down the stairs in her bare feet, and went to the door that lead out back. There was a nice little garden set up to the right and a sitting area to the left. A privacy fence encircled the whole house, so she shouldn't have to worry about anyone seeing her.

Willow went over to the grass in front of the flower garden and set up her circle.

She sat at the center, facing towards the rising sun, with her blade, a box of wooden matches, a candle, two small dishes that had salt in one and water in the other, and a small braided whip of sage set in front of her.

"Energies to the North and Essence of Earth, hear me," she murmured quietly. She took some salt from the little dish and sprinkled it over the dagger, and watched the tiny white particles disappear into the grass.

Next, she took out a match and struck it off the box's edge and lit the small, white candle. "Energies to the South and Essence of Fire, hear me," she said as she passed the flame over the blade.

She then picked up and lit the end of the braided whip of sage in the candle's flame, and after it had a good cherry on it, she blew it out. As she passed the whip gracefully back and forth over the dagger, smoke trailing lazily into the air, she said, "Energies to the East and Essence of Wind, hear me."

Lastly, she took up the little bowl of water and sprinkled droplets down as she intoned, "Energies to the West and Essence of Water, hear me."

She put down the bowl, and held the dagger up on the flat of her palms and whispered, "Bless this blade and guide my hand. Let this tool be one with my energy and be the compass to lead my way. Blessed Be."

A small breeze began to rustle the leaves of the tree's, and birds who had been welcoming the new day with song, burst out with cascades of soaring notes.

Willow thanked the four Corners and lowered her arms to cradle the athme in her lap. She closed her eyes and cleared her mind, and began her morning meditation exercises.

An hour later, she took down her circle, and after she gathered everything up, she headed inside and upstairs.

She had to get a shower.

To get ready for school.

She had to wear a uniform.

She was thrilled.

If something could be good and crappy at the same time, Karakura High School was it.

It was crappy because she had to finish out her sophomore year in a foreign country.

It was good, because the school year here was shorter than in Sunnydale, so she would only have a little over a month before summer vacation.

What she was going to do over the summer, she had no idea.

It was homeroom and Willow stood in front of the chalkboard, being introduced to her new classmates. She gave a shy wave and was allowed to take a seat.

The row closest to the windows had a desk open behind a pretty red headed girl who was looking at her curiously. She hoped she wasn't taking anybodies seat, but from the looks of it, there weren't any other open desks. Willow gave the girl a friendly smile as she walked past and slid into the chair.

The girl turned around and introduced herself, "Hi, I'm Orihime Inoue, are you really from California?"

Willow nodded shyly. "Yep. Good ol' Usa, land of the free, home of the... not me," she finished with a blush.

"Oh, how sad! Do you miss it there very much?" Orihime asked sympathetically. When Willow nodded again, she said, "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll like it here in no time."

Willow smiled her thanks, but before they could talk any more, the teacher called the class to order. She sat back and paid attention as roll call was taken, so she could learn the kids names that were seated around her.

The morning wore on and Willow found that she didn't have any problems keeping up academically with her new classmates. Her relief was short lived though as lunch time came around and everyone started to either leave or break into groups.

As she stood to gather her things, a shiver worked its way up her spine and Willow twitched her shoulders to dispel it. She raised an eyebrow as the tall orange-haired boy who sat next to her, Itchy something, who had been talking to Orihime, shot out of his seat and bolted from the room. Even stranger, the black haired girl who sat next to him, also ran out.

She stared after them for a couple of moments, then looked to Orihime to see her reaction to her friends just suddenly running off, but the other girl was looking out the window intently.

Following her gaze, Willow looked out in time to see Itchy run across the gym field, but he was dressed differently. He had some how changed out of his school uniform and was now wearing a traditional looking black robe.

And what looked like a huge damn sword slung across his back, wrapped in a odd white, binding sort of clothe.

"Ichigo," Orihime whispered worriedly.

"Why is he wearing a sword?" Willow murmured. "And where is he going?"

"The sword is his...," Orihime started to answer absently, then jerked in surprise and whipped around to look at her. She hissed,"You can see him?"

Willow recoiled from the other girl's reaction and warily said, "Yeah. So what? He supposed to be invisible or something?"

Orihime frowned at her, but didn't say anything, so Willow shrugged her shoulders and muttered, "Whatever." She picked up her back pack and left the classroom to go and try to find someplace quiet to have her lunch. She didn't think she could handle getting to know any more of her new classmates today.

By the time she had found a nice shady spot under a tree and had finished her lunch, she had managed to push the strange encounter with her fellow red head from earlier, out of her mind.

The rest of the school day went sort of smoothly, except for a few odd looks between herself and Ichigo.

He had shown up, dressed in his uniform again, before the bell had rung to signal that lunch was over. Both he and Rukia, the dark haired girl who had run after him, had had a quick, whispered conversation with Orihime, and ever since then she could feel them staring at her off and on throughout the rest of the day.

When the final bell rang, Willow kept her head down as she gathered her belongings, she didn't want to invite any conversations.

Some of her new classmates acted a little too weird.

And she grew up on the hellmouth, so that was saying something.

The whole walk home, she felt like she was being watched, but when she looked over her shoulder, no one was there.

She felt freaked out, frustrated, and if she was honest with herself, a little frightened.

All of which was making her kinda cranky.

It felt like it took an eternity to walk the last two blocks to her house. If who ever was staring at her had had lasers for eyes, she would look like swiss cheese before she made it to her front door.

Willow unlocked her door, got inside, shut and re-locked her door so fast, she thought she must have set a land speed record or something. She crept to the window in the front den and twitched the curtain back every so slightly. She peered through, but didn't see anybody.

She let the curtain fall back and bit her lip in thought. Was she being too paranoid? If not, did this have to do with Ichigo? Or Urahara? What the hell was going on?

She felt so isolated.

Alone in a house that was much too big for just her, more than half-way around the world from anybody that she called friend or family.

The red head wrapped her arms around to hug herself and she went upstairs to change out of the horrible gray pleated skirt and white button-up shirt.

After she slipped on her pair of favorite, worn, practically faded to white jeans, and a cute little pink t-shirt, that had a large red star on the chest, she slipped her athme out of the boot holder and went to do her homework.

She'd have to wait until later to finish the ritual that binded her to the blade. It had had to be initiated in the rising suns light, and it had to be finished under the brilliance of a rising full moon. Which was good, because she could lay a protection ward around the perimeter of the house afterward.

Willow spent the next couple of hours doing her homework, and when she finished she set up her bag for the next morning and left it by the front door for her to grab on her way out. She had a bit of time until she had to get ready, so she made herself a light dinner.

It was a little over an hour later and she had just finished setting her circle. The moon was rising into the beautiful purple tinged night sky. She knelt at the center and started invoking the four corners and their corresponding elements.

"Let my strength be as unbending as this blade. May I be as true and sharp as its edge. Be of me and I of you," she whispered, then pricked the tip of her right-hand index finger.

She watched as a bead of blood welled to the surface, then pressed her finger to the cool metal of the blade and smeared a trail of red from the tip to the hilt. She grasped the athme in her right hand and thrust it up to the night sky.

"As above, so below. As I will it, so mote it be," she murmured and stabbed the blade into the ground.

She felt a shock run up her hand as a connection to the earth's energies snapped into place. Willow sighed in relief and shifted to sit flat on the ground, never taking her right hand off the dagger's hilt.

Once she was settled, she closed her eyes and centered her mind. She started at the crown of her head, and moved down her body to her feet, opening her chakra points along the way, infusing the glow of her energy with her body and blade.

She sent her will and essence down into her athme, down into the ground that cradled it. Then, after she had absorbed some of the steady and constant flow that filled the earth, she sent everything up into the cosmos, creating a link of power that connected her with nature and the essence of the universe.

Willow let a small smile stretch her lips as she said the final blessing on her new athme, "Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit, I claim this blade as my own. Strengthen my arm so I may be worthy to wield it. Blessed Be."

She closed down her chakras, and thanked the Corners before she pulled the dagger out of the earth and took down her circle. She had one last thing to do before she could go in and relax before she had to go to bed. But walking the perimeter with the burning sage and amethyst in one hand and her newly blessed athme in the other, wouldn't be hard.

When that was done, she collected the little bowls, the candle, matches, and the little stump of sage that was left, and brought everything inside. She'd have to go to Urahara's to get more, but she didn't need it right away, so it could wait a couple of days.

That night, as she was washing up before getting into bed, if she had looked out the window, she would have seen a sight that would have had her screaming for Buffy.

A monstrously huge creature with a bone white mask covering its face stood at the border of her front property. It kept a good couple of feet from the ward she had lain earlier, but that was the only thing keeping it from coming closer.

It's long, serpentine tail gently whipped back and forth behind it, but the creature didn't seem agitated.

That changed as a figure dressed in black robes, with orange hair, leaped out from the shadows and cut a slice in the creatures bone mask.

Even though the monster was easily defeated, the man with the sword noticed something odd.

As the creature dissolved and float away into nothing, it kept its face turned towards the house it had been staring at, not looking at him even once before it died.

The next day at school was a bit quieter for Willow.

Mainly due to the fact that the students who had been wigging her out yesterday, had left at lunch and hadn't come back yet.

At the end of the day, as she was gathering her books and things to go home, Willow couldn't help overhear an interesting conversation.

"Orihime, do you know where we're supposed to go?" a tall and muscular boy asked the red head who sat in front of her.

"I think Yoruichi said that Mr. Urahara wanted us on the foot bridge. But, Chad, we have a little time before we have to be there."

"All the same, we should go."

"Do you think Ichigo will be alright?" Orihime asked worriedly.

"I hope so."

Willow couldn't help but to perk her ears when she heard them mention the strange blonde who ran the herbal shop. And maybe if she snuck along, she could see what Ichigo did with that ginormous sword of his.

Mind made up, she followed at a discrete distance behind her fellow classmates, trying to not let them see her behind them.

She was a couple of blocks away when she saw the pair go up a flight of stairs and onto a foot bridge that lead into a park. They stopped and rested against the rail and were staring up at something.

Willow looked, but didn't see anything at first.

Then, she couldn't help but notice a thin crack in the sky, as it started to be pushed open from the other side.

Willow's heart felt like it was going to stop, as she stared in horror as bone white hands seemed to grip the tear on either side and start to rip the sky open.

She stood, frozen in terror, as the things black hooded head began to push its way into their reality.

As it's body came into view, she saw that it was freaking huge!

It opened its mouth and let out a roar that reverberated in her bones.

Willow looked around for help, but she soon noticed that nobody else seemed to be seeing the creature the size of a sky scrapper as it stomped its way into their reality.

A flash of blue light hit the creature in the face, but only seemed to nick it.

She looked to see where the light came from and gasped as she recognized two of her classmates standing in front of the beast. The one who had shot the blue light was that skinny guy with the glasses, who sat at the front of her class, and the other was unmistakably Ichigo.

The two appeared to be arguing something, and then the guy with the glasses did something that nearly had her giggling, even with a twenty story monster howling above.

He tied Ichigo's huge sword to his head and held out his arms like he had thought of the perfect solution.

Willow wasn't sure if she was having a crazy dream, or if what was happening in front of her, actually was.

Before she could decide if she should pinch herself, the creature opened its mouth and a strange red energy started to gather between its teeth. Ichigo grabbed his sword off of the other guys head and ran toward it.

As it started to release the pent up blast of energy, Willow cried out in horror and started to run towards the scene. She didn't know what she would do when she got there, but she had to do something to help.

Even if, it was to pull the dead bodies of her classmates out of the way.

She stumbled as the energy blast hit Ichigo, and she felt a backwash of power as he met it head on with his blade. Stunned, she watched as he held it back, and began to push it away.

With a roar of his own, Ichigo snapped his sword up, and a brilliant slash of light blue energy ripped up the front of the monster.

It howled in pain and started to back away, towards the tear in reality it had come from. It grasped the edges and started to pull the sky around itself, to close up the hole.

Willow didn't stop and watch as the thing disappeared, she rushed forward to see if the two boys were alright. Ichigo had collapsed on the ground and the other boy was staring at the retreating monster.

She skidded to a halt next to Ichigo, and knelt down to look him over for any obvious damage, but she didn't see any blood except for on his face.

"Are you alright?" she gasped a bit breathlessly.

He looked up at her, startled and asked, "What are you doing here?"

Before she could answer, he let out a shout of pain and she felt a huge burst of energy rip through her.

She screamed in agony as the power arched her back and nearly raised her off her knee's with the force of it slamming into her over and over again.

It felt like she was being burned from the inside out, but at the same time a great pressure was crushing her from the outside in.

Helplessly, she flailed her arms, trying to find something to hold onto, something to stop the pain.

There was a biting sting on her hand and Willow felt something deep within her swell and then snap, and she fell into the blessed blackness of being unconscious.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Ichigo, go home. She'll be fine," Urahara said in exasperation to the teen pacing just outside his front door. He had started by circling the dinning room, much to the annoyance of everyone gathered, so he had been banished to outside.

"But, when will she wake up?" Ichigo asked stubbornly from the doorway.

Urahara sighed as his gaze rested on the seemingly peaceful red head laying in the next room, "When she's ready."

Willow felt weird.

Fuzzy and lightheaded.

And she couldn't see a damn thing.

There was nothing but a black void surrounding her.

"Hello?" she called out, but her voice sounded muted and underwater, so she tried a little louder, "Hello!"

"Willow," a soft voice whispered.

"Hello? Is someone there?" she responded.

"Willow..."

She looked all around her, but didn't see anything but blackness. "Oh, come on, where and who are you?" she muttered.

"...call... out..."

"Call out?" she asked in confusion. "Call out what?"

"... name.. me.."

"What?" she demanded, but only silence greeted her. "Name you, huh? What the hell does that mean?"

There was a pulse of pressure at her right calf, and she looked down to see what it was. Willow cringed to see herself still in her school uniform, but she put that out of her mind when she saw her athme sticking up just above her boot.

Nonplussed, she reached for it. She could have sworn she had left it at home that morning, so what the hell was it doing here?

As her hand wrapped around the smooth hilt and she pulled it free of its sheath, the black void around her began to shimmer with colors.

Swirls of brilliant green and rich browns started to mass below her as eddies of soft blue filled the space above her.

Between one blink of the eye and the next, she was standing in a forest, with a clear robin's egg sky stretched overhead.

Willow couldn't do anything but gape at her surroundings for a moment.

She frowned as she noticed that all the trees were muted shades of gray and brown, and they had no leaves on their bare skeletal branches.

"Hello?" she whispered.

An answering pulse came from the almost forgotten dagger in her hand.

"...name...me..." a soft voice ghosted around her.

"How?" Willow asked as she gazed at the athme in wonder, she somehow knew that the voice came from the blade.

"...listen..."

She frowned, but shrugged her shoulders and closed her eyes.

There was a soft wind blowing through the dead tree boughs, but other than that, she didn't hear anything.

"...listen..harder..."

Obediently, she blocked out the wind and trees, listening for the faintest of sounds.

"...amat...era..su.." she heard ever so faintly.

"Amaterasu?" she asked hesitantly.

"...again..louder..."

"Amaterasu," she said stronger, the athme gave a pulse in response.

"...again..."

"AMATERASU!" she called forcefully and the blade in her hand sent a shock of awareness up her arm and into her chest. Willow gasped as the sensation of pulsing warmth spread through the rest of her body.

A purplish and gold mist swirled along the ground out of the trees, and began to mass in front of her.

"Greetings," came a feminine voice out of the mist.

"Um, hello," Willow responded nervously. "Why can't I see you properly?"

"You are bound," the woman in the mist said and gently touched Willow's wrists. "You must break your restraints to see and hear me properly."

Willow looked down at her wrists and was surprised to see that there was a thin band of some type of metal encircling them. She raised them up to get a better look, and gasped in horror when she saw that the metal had little mouths gnashing their teeth all around her wrists.

"W-w-what are they?" she all but shrieked. "Get them off me!"

"I can not. You must, or we will begin to fade," the woman said in remorse. "Now go, free us both."

Willow sat bolt upright and gasped, "Amaterasu."

She looked around, but didn't recognize her surroundings. Her heart was beating erratically, and she still felt dizzy. "Where am I? What happened?" she whispered in the darkened room.

Willow bit her lip in thought, she couldn't seem to think past the mist lady. She concentrated on slowing her heart and took deep breathes to try and calm her sudden panic. But, all she could think was that she had to get free, she had to get those disgusting mouths off of her.

She closed her eyes, shutting out everything around her , and forced her mind to quiet. She focused on her breathing and dispelling her panic.

But it was hard, she still felt lightheaded and a little dizzy.

Swallowing back an inpatient sigh at herself, Willow rose from the soft pallet she had been resting on.

There was a twinge of pain from her right hand and when she looked, she saw that it was wrapped in a bandage. A spot of red was starting to seep through on her palm. Wondering what had happened, she crept as silently as she could to the door.

She looked into the next room, but only saw a low round table with some cushions.

Once she made her way to front room, she recognized Urahara's shop. How had she gotten here?

She absently rubbed where she had seen the creepy manacles as she ghosted through the silent shop to the front door. As far as she could tell, there wasn't anything physically surrounding her wrists, but she couldn't forget the sight of all those little mouths as they gnashed their teeth and flicked their tongues.

Willow shuddered at the memory and fought another wave of panic. She had to get out of here, she had to feel the air on her face, because right now she couldn't breathe.

She fumbled with the latch on the door and gave a low growl of frustration. Cursing her bandaged hand, she finally slid the door open enough to slip out.

She stumbled a few steps away from the house and took a gulp of the cool night air.

The sky overhead was turning pale at the edges, but the stars still twinkled high up above her.

The pre-dawn sky swirled suddenly in her vision.

Why was she so dizzy?

With a hand pressed to her forehead, she started to make her unsteady and tired way home.

It never occurred to her that she should stay at Urahara's, that she could have gotten the answers and healing she needed there. Her mind was too fogged to think rationally.

She had no idea how long it took her to get there, but surprised was a decent way to describe how she felt when she found herself at her front door.

She couldn't remember the walk from Urahara's.

Trying to get the cloud of exhaustion and dizziness to lift for a second, Willow shook her head sharply. Which didn't really help, she found as she lost her balance and had to lean against the solid wood of her door.

She rested there for a few moments and her mind cleared a little bit. Grateful for the reprieve, Willow reached for the doorknob, so she could get inside and go to bed.

Locked.

Crap, she had forgotten that she had left her keys in her backpack.

Where had she left her book-bag?

Too muzzy-headed to remember, she stumbled her way around to the back of the house. She could swear that she had left the back sliding door unlocked.

When she pulled on the handle, the door obligingly slid open, and she nearly wept with relief.

Barely thinking enough to close the door behind her, Willow staggered over to the nearest couch and fell onto it.

She was asleep before her head hit the cushion.

The sun had only been up for a little over an hour, and its rays shined gently on Urahara as he stood over the empty pallet where Willow should have been still resting. After Ichigo had left, they had given her a healing remedy that should have had her sleeping until morning.

But there sat the pallet. Empty.

There was something else that shone softly in the morning light.

A tiny trail of droplets that started at the pallets edge and he followed them to find that it went through the dinning room, into his shop, to the front door.

The open front door.

Outside, the red droplets were spaced erratically and further apart, which meant the girl had staggered her way to the street.

Suppressing a groan, Urahara followed the macabre breadcrumbs, fully expecting to find the red head collapsed on the side of the road.

When he reached the main cross street, the trail ended and he couldn't find any traces of the girls blood. He peered this way and that, but again he didn't see anything.

There were too many possible ways she could have gone.

He'd have to go back to the shop and wrangle Tessai and the kids into helping to search for the missing and obviously still injured red head.

Hopefully they'd be able to find her before anything else horrible happened.

The house was quiet and warm.

Late afternoon sunlight streamed in and bathed the sleeping red head in a soft glow.

Her face should have been peaceful in slumber, but there was a slight frown twisting her lips downward, as well as a little line between her brows that showed she was in pain.

There was a rush of displaced air and a loud smack cracked sharply.

Willow gasped as she was slapped into consciousness. Her cheek stung at the harsh treatment and tears blurred her eyes.

When she turned her face back to look at who had hit her, she was blinded with the sun shining into her already clouded eyes.

There was a scrap and a hiss as a sword rang free from its sheath, and when she opened her eyes to identify what was happening, a flash of white light blinded her again.

She finally managed to fling up a hand tiredly in front of her eyes and groaned at the punishing bombardment of light.

"What?" she gasped as rough hands gripped her up and flung her over someones shoulder, making her lose her breath.

Willow had no time to get her air back or to see what was going on, before everything around her blurred into incomprehensible nothingness.

Wind streamed her hair into her eyes, as whoever had taken her seemed to move faster than light.

After what seemed like only seconds, the man who had treated her so roughly stopped moving and dumped her off his shoulder unceremoniously.

She tumbled to the ground, smacking her forehead on the cracked cement of the floor.

The man chuckled coldly as he watched her press a hand to the small gash in her head.

Willow grimaced at the pain and glared up at the man, only to gasp when she recognized Kisuke Urahara. "W-what?" she stuttered in confusion.

Kisuke shook his head at her and tutted in reproach. "My, I had no idea you were so stupid," he said condescendingly as he raised his sword up and pointed it at her.

"Why?" she asked desperately and held up a hand to ward him off. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because I need you and them out of the way, and this will help accomplish both tasks quite well," he informed her almost nonchalantly as he thrust his sword towards her chest.

The blade pierced her chest and a hot pain radiated from her sternum, making her cry out in agony.

"Shouldn't take long, the chain has already been severed, so that should have sped things along nicely," he said and turned to walk down a flight of stone steps. He threw over his shoulder, "Come and get me if you can."

Willow lay there, pressing her hand between her breasts, trying to stem the blood flow. Shock and anger warred within her.

What the hell was going on?

She gasped as pain lanced through her.

It felt like her chest was going to explode.

What the hell did he do to her?

Willow groped at her boot, feeling for her dagger.

Sighing in relief, she grasped the athme.

Stand UP!

Gritting her teeth against the pain, she pushed herself into standing up.

She clenched the dagger in her fist and stumbled to the stairs.

It looked as if a section of the floor had risen up, exposing the hidden steps.

She stepped down into the gloom and began to make her way slowly. She had to brace herself against the wall so she wouldn't tumble to her death.

Willow snorted at that.

She knew she was going to die regardless.

Might as well try to take her killer with her in the process.

Rage bubbled in her chest, which made the bleeding wound throb in eagerness.

It seemed to take forever to descend.

She felt like she had been walking for hours, when she saw the gloom begin to lighten.

The last ten steps were an agonized blur.

When she stepped onto the sandy floor she nearly fell on her face, but was able to put her hands out in time to catch herself. Still, the impact jarred up her arms and tightened her chest. Unable to stop, she cried out at the pain.

Hunching her shoulders against further outbursts, she pushed to her feet and made her way to the hazy and distant figures ahead of her.

Her eyes focused on a black robe... blonde hair... stripped hat..

Kisuke.

Her fingers tightened around the hilt grasped in her trembling hand.

The lust for vengeance fueled her steps, and she found she could use that seething hatred and forced herself to run.

She raised her arm to strike and was about to plunge the blade home, when she was struck in the stomach.

There was an odd ripping and she flew backwards.

She lay on the ground trying to breathe past the pain in her chest. Just trying to breathe really.

She glared up at Kisuke and would have spit at him if she could have.

He just stood there staring at her in shock, his cane held towards her.

When he had felt someone rushing up to attack, he hadn't expected it to be his missing red head.

He had thrust his cane back and apparently he had knocked her soul from her body as his eyes flicked to her collapsed corpse and her gasping on the ground ten feet from it.

He looked for her Chain of Fate that linked her to her human form, but didn't see the metal links that should have been there.

His gaze traveled to her gasping form and he lost his breath to shock as he saw how short her chain was. There was even a gaping wound in the anchor plate!

He hadn't hit her that hard!

He could hear noises of shock and curiosity from the group behind him, but he didn't take his eyes off of the girl.

Willow felt like there was a great pressure pressing on her chest, keeping her from taking a deep breath. That coupled with pulsing agony of her stab wound had her trembling.

Her rage had not diminished though.

No, it burned.

White hot and fierce.

Agony erupted in her chest and she found the breath to scream as she looked down and saw horror like that which she had never seen before.

There was a fucking metal plate embedded in her fucking chest.

With a chain.

And oh boy, there was a chain.

Five links of 'metal', covered in gnashing, tearing teeth.

The mouths were fucking eating each other.

The mouths started screaming, their voices joining hers as the anchor plate began to crack and shatter, the chain following shortly after.

Willow arched her spine, tilted back her head, and howled in torment.

Her screams were choked off as white liquid began to pour out her eyes, nose, and mouth.

Unbelievably, she found she could still gurgle her misery out around the viscous fluid that pulsed and shuddered out of her.

He slipped silently through a small decorative forest, smug victory swelling his chest as he walk on forbidden ground.

He knew that girl was going to come in handy.

Her blood had been the key to getting into one of the upper realms.

Specifically, the Shadow King's realm.

Contrary to his title, the king seemed to enjoy a gentler beauty.

Confident in his zanpaktou's ability to hide him, he stepped out of the ornamental tree's and ghosted over a footbridge that spanned a koi pond that was more like a lake. The estate house loomed across the water.

He crossed the grassy lawn on the other side and crept up to a small, personal back porch.

His information had been correct, he learned as he peered in a large open window.

The king spent his afternoons in the library.

Searching the books.

For what, his source couldn't tell him, but there the king was, absorbed in his books, paying not a bit of attention to his surroundings.

He slipped noiselessly in through the window and approached the king.

The man had his back to him and didn't appear to sense him at all.

Apparently, those wretched little cuffs he'd had made, worked wonders.

He raised the specially anointed blade and moved like a shadow.

With one clean stroke, he took the kings head.

Willow knelt on the ground, her spine bowed backwards, shrieking her tortured cries to the heavens.

A sick, insidious evil was trying to overwhelm her mind.

Never mind the liquid pouring from every orifice of her face, there was a ravenous clawing at her mind, and she would NOT let it have her!

She fought with every fiber in her being, every ounce of magic she possessed, to not let that Thing take her over.

A roar of thunder cracked overhead, startling the group that watched in horror and astonishment as this slip of a girl turned into a hollow before them.

"Urahara, what the hell is this?" a tall slim blonde man asked.

"I don't know, Shinji, I really don't," Kisuke replied. "She's fighting it, though."

"Hmm, so she is. Shinigami?" Shinji queried.

"I didn't think so. She doesn't have a very strong riatsu."

"What's that around her wrists?" a green haired girl asked as she bounced up next to Shinji.

The blonde looked down at the slim girl in the white cat suit, then over to where the red head screamed out her pain in transformation. "Good eye, Mashiro!" he exclaimed as he saw the weird cuffs that encircled the girls wrists. There were tiny little mouths all over them. Realization dawned and he felt sickened.

"They're eating her riatsu," Kisuke said gravely. "She'll turn into a hollow if she can't break them."

Their conversation was cut off as thunder rumbled overhead again, followed by a bolt of cobalt blue lightening.

The bolt struck Willow in her forehead.

Power swelled and pulsed as it surged out of her in waves.

Wind swirled around her, lifting her long red tresses to play in its wake.

She began to rise into the air, borne up on the wind of her power.

Her arms stretched out, and a sickly purplish flame sprang up on her hands and leaped to encircle the horrifying bands of mouths.

They screamed as she burned them.

The metal became white hot and exploded off of her in a shower of burning shards.

Her riatsu, which had been stifled and stolen for god only knew how long, swelled to fill the missing pieces of it's self.

Willow floated a good ten feet above the ground, power thrumming along every fiber of her being. She thrust a spear of raw energy at the beast that clawed and chewed at her soul and mind.

In her right hand, forgotten, but clutched all the same, her athme whispered, "...name... me!"

Willow tried to gasp a breath around the white liquid pouring from her mouth, and choked.

"..NAME..ME!"

The desire to let one last scream pass her lips, the conviction that her blade would awaken and save her, the will to destroy this evil inside her, made her voice ring out like bell tolling in heaven's skies.

"AMATERASU!"

The dagger in her hand pulsed into awareness, and started to glow a deep purple, little bolts of blue and gold crackled around it.

The glow engulfed the petite form that floated above the ground, blocking her from view with a cocoon of power.

"Hacchi! Throw up a level five force field NOW!" Shinji hollered above the howling wind storm. The large man nodded his head emphatically and dropped into a cross-legged position on the ground. He slapped his hands together, palm facing palm and called out a spell of shielding.

The wind whipped his words away, but not their effect. A golden box surrounded the red head, hopefully it would help protect them from the nuclear blast of power that was about to rip towards them.

Willow nearly shriek in surprise as she suddenly found herself in a forest.

It was the same forest that she had met the mist lady in.

"Are you here, Amaterasu?" she called out.

The purple mist crept out of the shadows of the trees and stared to mass into a shape.

Into a woman that had pale ivory skin, long luscious locks of midnight blue/black hair, and eyes that burned a pure clear emerald. She wore a robed gown of creamy white and gold. The skirt of the robe had flowers and animals, and trees stenciled in abstract lines and pale shimmering colors.

"The tree's are still dead, Willow," Amaterasu said sadly. "You must wake them."

Willow squared her shoulders and lifted her athme into the air. She willed her power to fill the blade, and as it did, it began to stretch and grow in length. Until it looked like a proper sword.

The blade was a good two and a half feet long, it was slender and had a wicked curve at the tip. The hilt was long enough to grasp two handed if desired, and had a pummel cap, but no hand guard. Hematite still covered the hilt, but the silver wrapping had melted into the shiny black of the crystal.

Power danced along the blade, like liquid purple fire as she held the sword proudly in the air and called, "Life of my life, blood of my blood, limb of my limb, breath my breathe and live!"

"As above, so below," she invoked as she stabbed the sword into the ground and willed her power into the forest.

Energy crackled into the ground and found the root system that threaded all the trees together like one big entity, and proceeded to pulse into every limb, every branch, every nook and cranny.

Grayish-brown bark began to crumble from the trunks, leaving behind a rich earthy brown in its wake. Little green buds started to sprout all over thousands of branches, then burst into flower.

Soft lavender, blushing pink, and creamy white petals drifted on a soft breeze that gently blew around Willow and Amaterasu, making it seem as if it were snowing petals.

The raven haired woman smiled luminously at her and breathed, "Good."

Willow couldn't help but smile in response to the glowing warmth that filled her when she felt that smile grace her, and pulled the sword from the earth.

"You must go back now. Tame the shadow inside, don't let it tame you," Amaterasu advised, then she smiled and dissolved into the mist.

The purple and gold mist poured into the sword, which only confirmed what Willow had already known.

Amaterasu was her athme.

Her soul weapon.

This forest was the seat of her inner power.

She would not let it die again.

Willow came back to herself in a tornado of her own power. Flames the color of amethyst, boiled around her in a cyclone.

She thrust her sword high overhead and willed her power to fill the blade. Willed it to cease its path of destruction.

Kisuke wasn't sure what the others saw as they beheld the girl in front of them, but he knew, in his heart of hearts that this girl would be nothing they had ever experienced before.

She floated off the ground.

No longer in the school uniform, she now wore a black battle kimono. But it didn't look like a normal shinigami's robe. The material looked soft and was form fitted. There was a vague shadow of color on the skirt that resembled tree's and flowers.

The skirt was split up the sides to allow full movement in battle, but it also showed that the slim legs of the girl were encased in black leather boots that came up over her knees.

The material of the top stopped at her shoulders, leaving her arms bare. And to tie the robe closed a thick cobalt blue ribbon wrapped repeatedly and knotted.

But the most eye catching thing he noticed about her as she lowered her arms and began to drift down to earth, had to be her mask.

It was completely black, with a small red scar of red on the forehead. It had sharp little fangs, and a hint of horns at the top corner edges.

She met his gaze head on, and he couldn't help the shiver of fear that ran down his spine as he saw her eyes in the glassy black surface of her mask.

They were a silvery purple iris, framed in a sea of black.

They were breathtaking.

Even as she raised her sword and floated across the sandy floor that separated them, like an angel of death, he couldn't look away from those eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

One would believe that the afterlife was a place where your soul was either sent to Heaven or Hell after you die.

For the most part, that is correct.

There is a Heaven, and there is a Hell.

Heaven, or rather Soul Society, is viewed by some to be paradise, but in truth, life there is very much like it was in the living world.

When a soul first arrives, it is sent to the Rukon District, the largest and most populated section of Soul Society. In total, it has three hundred and twenty districts broken down into four major areas. North, South, East, and West.

As is typical with the seething masses that still remain in the living world, there are areas that are peaceful, and areas that are not. In the center of Soul Society lies the Seireitei, or Court of Pure Souls, and it is reserved for those that possess spiritual pressure.

The living world is parallel to Soul Society, and both are merely opposite sides of the same coin.

Families separated by death are rarely reunited, unless they arrive together in the afterlife. No one ever gets hungry, if he or she doesn't have spiritual powers that is, and aging is slowed to a great extent, with life spans over two thousand years or more not being unusual, though such ages are limited to Shinigami or other Soul Society denizens.

Children can even be born as they are in the living world.

Souls can be killed like regular humans can, though they are capable of surviving wounds that normally would be considered fatal. A soul that dies in the afterlife is reincarnated on Earth as a new human with no past memories.

Of course, Soul Society is ruled by a king.

The Spirit King.

The Spirit King commonly leaves the running of the government to the Central 46 chambers, a group of highly elite Shinigami's, and to the Nobles. He lives with his family in the Royal Palace in a separate dimension in the very core of Soul Society, which is protected by the Royal Guard.

Something that is rarely, if ever, acknowledged is that the Spirit King has a brother, a twin.

The Shadow King.

Where one twin represents light, the other does so for the dark. Every soul carries within them the capacity for great good or terrible evil.

A time, oh so long ago, there was the conception of an extraordinary soul. One so bright, that it would remake the very heavens in his image.

But as in life, nature abhors a vacuum.

There must be balance, or life will be strangled to a choking halt.

If everything was peaches and light, then no one would strive to better themselves, no one would grow or learn.

And what would happen to those with a darker inclination?

So Destiny took it upon itself to correct the imbalance before it became an issue and split the soul in twain.

As is the natural order, the boys were birthed and celebrated, but everyone who gazed upon them remarked on their differences.

Where one had hair a brown so light it was golden, the other had a red so dark, it was almost black.

One baby would smile and coo, the other would be silent and watchful.

As the boys grew from children to men, the difference in their natures became more and more pronounced.

No longer bound together in childhood camaraderie, they found themselves taking different paths in life, making choices that would ultimately lead them to their inevitable destinies.

But there was one thing that they agreed upon.

The current tyrant that held sway over their world had to be stopped.

Battle and strife, blood and bone, all was laid bare as the brothers took their fate in their hands and decided to make a better life for themselves and their people.

To attain ones goals, there are many things that some are willing to do. Parts of themselves that are sacrificed for the greater good, but some are willing to sacrifice more than others, go to places that would have been best to leave alone.

When the brothers claimed victory over the old regime, they had to face what they had done in the name of glory.

Unable to forgive his twin the atrocities he had committed, even in the heat of battle, the now crowned Spirit King put a ban on his brother and sent him to reside in a realm of his own.

Since he had embraced darkness to conquer, he could now rule it.

Resentful of his brother, the newly made Shadow King went quietly none-the-less, for he still loved his twin.

Centuries passed and both kings grew in power.

Though they didn't talk, the Shadow King watched in envy as his brother grew more prosperous, married and then had a family.

The ban that had been placed on him had decreed that his evil should not pass to another, so he was never to lay with a woman.

If he did, it would be his death.

But jealousy and resentment had been brewing for centuries and the dark king yearned for comfort in his lonely realm.

He had mastered the art of weaving shadows long ago, so donned a guise and left his pleasant prison.

He had watched over the years as souls came and went in the society that his brother had created, so he knew the places his twin's eyes never saw.

The section of the Rukon farthest to the edges were home to the souls that were too violent, too derelict.

Practically kindred spirits.

He could mask his darkness with light and beauty, but it never changed who he was at his core.

He drifted in and out of settlements, spending hours just sitting bars, wandering the markets, watching.

If he was to commit high treason, not just any female would do.

One day, when he was meandering from one district into another, he saw a flaxen haired beauty sitting at the edge of a nearby stream.

She had a softly curving figure, with creamy pale skin that seemed to soak in the sunshine.

He was taken with her immediately.

And after one look into his darkly luminous eyes, she was his.

Their love, great though it was, had to be hidden and kept secret, for the Shadow King knew his brother's wraith would be unbearable. So, he hid amongst the regular souls, hiding his spiritual pressure, buying time to spend in the scorching embrace of forbidden love.

After a time, nature took its course and he was told that he was to be a father.

All range of emotions filled him, but the most prevalent was fear.

For his love, for his child, for himself.

Nine months later and he lost everything.

His love passed in childbirth and he had to send the infant away.

Bitterness had filled him as he sealed his baby girl's soul into a specially made geigai and placed a sygil of binding on her now human brow. It would suppress her spiritual powers, unless she could find a way to either break it or slip the geigai entirely.

He had given his progeny the best protection he could.

Anonymity.

He then had brought her to the living world, on the other side of the Earth, and watched over her until she had been found by other humans and taken in.

Content that his daughter had escaped judgment for merely being of his loins, he went back to his realm and never set foot in the Soul Society or the living world again.

He vowed to himself, that he would never again leave his realm, and he stayed there until the day he died.

On that fateful day, sixteen years after he had made his vow, the Shadow King was in his library.

He paused in his reading when he felt a faint swell of distantly familiar power that tickled his memory.

So lost in thought, he never saw the blade anointed in his own daughter's blood arc towards his neck.

His brother had been correct; breaking the ban had meant his death.

As a wise, um, man once said, It's always about the blood.

Willow paid no heed to her surroundings as she moved with a single-minded purpose towards Kisuke Urahara.

She felt strong and free, like an unknown weight had been removed.

She was glad she had reigned in her earlier power flare, she wanted to deal directly with her attempted murderer, not lay waste to the building. She wanted to cut him, the way she had been cut, make him bled the way he had bled her.

The urge to be cruel and terrible overran her thoughts.

Not stopping to think that this new attitude might be a bit much, she slithered across the desert landscape, not noticing that her feet never touched the ground.

So intent on her kill, she never considered how she was now healed, nor what had happened to the white liquid that had been choking her.

She met wide gray eyes and couldn't help the dark chuckle that escaped her.

His shock and, surprisingly, desire, was palatable. It tasted like wine on her tongue.

As she drew close, she whipped her right arm up in an graceful arc, her sword flashing silver in the undergrounds artificial sunlight.

Kisuke brought his cane up to block and her blade imbedded in the wood.

Willow smirked at his expression of disbelief and whispered in a voice that echoed silibently as she bore down, "Not as weak as I was before, huh? You won't cut me so easily now."

"What?" he responded in surprise as he twisted to the side and eeled out away from her.

"Don't play dumb! You know what you did!" she hissed at him and attacked in a flurry of shining silver.

He blocked her strikes, but knew he would have to draw his sword. He grasped above the curve of the canes handle and pulled his sword free with nary a whisper.

"Awaken, Benihime!" he called out and the curved handle dissolved into mist and reformed into a black diamond-braid wrapped hilt. It had no hand guard, just a beautifully tied red ribbon.

Light hit the blade and it triggered a feint memory in the red head, cutting through the haze of anger and bloodlust that fueled her.

The hiss and scrape of a sword being drawn and then a flash of white light that had blinded her.

But she had seen the hilt of the sword before the flash of light.

It had had a hand guard.

Shaped like a hexagon.

And the diamond wrap had been pale sky blue, not black.

Shock froze her in place.

Curious gray eyes met stunned and suddenly scared silvery purple.

Willow let her sword arm fall to her side and her shoulders slumped as she whispered, "It wasn't you."

"What happened?" the blonde asked softly as he too lowered his sword.

Willow gave a choked laugh and shook her head ruefully before answering, "I was attacked at my house." He looked like he wanted to interrupt, but she held out her hand to forestall him. "Before you ask, the only time I saw his face was when he looked like you."

Kisuke jerked in surprise, "Me?"

She nodded solemnly. "He grabbed me and brought me here, then dumped me on the floor and stabbed me," she explained as she touched between her breasts lightly. "When I looked up, it was you."

"Then, why did stop attacking him?" a tall, thin blonde man asked as he stepped up next to Kisuke.

"His sword. The man who stabbed me had a sword that had a hand guard shaped like a hexagon and its wrap was pale blue, not black like Mr. Urahara's."

"Kisuke," the shop owner corrected absently. "I think we can move past formalities at this point," he said with a wry grin.

Willow gave a hesitant nod. She felt awkward now that she realized that she had attacked the wrong person. She looked down at her sword and willed it to return to its dagger form. She felt a ripple of satisfaction as the blade shimmered and reformed into her athme. She hadn't been sure it would.

The others looked on in interest as the blade shrank and her shiny black mask dissolved into shadows, then melted away. The whites of her eyes stayed black for a few moments longer, then they too faded back to normal. Her natural emerald green replaced the power fueled lavender of her iris's.

Willow looked down at herself for the first time and rose stained her cheeks as she got a good look at what she was wearing.

She was relieved to see however, that the extremely high boots had sheaths in them, just like the boots she had gotten from Buffy, and slid the athme away out of sight.

Afraid and self-conscious, she peered quickly under her top and gave a big sigh of relief when she saw that there was no longer a plate and chain imbedded in her chest, nor a gaping hole where it had been.

But the flesh over her sternum wasn't completely clear either.

A thin line of pale white scar tissue, about two and a half inches long, showed where her attacker had stabbed her.

Curious, she looked at her right palm to see if it had healed too.

Not as surprised as she thought she would be to see the reknit flesh, the red head studied the long scar that started at the middle of her palm and slashed diagonally downward to curl around the bottom of her hand.

It too was a pale white, with a flat shine that seemed leeched of color next to the hue of her skin.

She had always liked to jokingly refer to herself as transparently pale, but the scar tissue seemed like dead skin compared to the rosy tone of her flesh.

As if the life had been utterly drained from the skin as it healed.

Suppressing a shudder, she held her palm up and asked Kisuke, "What happened?"

"Do you remember Ichigo fighting that huge monster in the park yesterday?" he asked, and when she nodded he continued, "It was a Menos Grande, and Ichigo had to ramp up his energy levels to fight it off. Unfortunately, after the fight his power kept gearing up. When a burst of his power slammed through you, you flailed your arms a bit and impaled your hand on Ichigo's super charged and unstable zanpaktou."

"Zanpaktou?" she ask in confusion.

"What? You don't even know what kind of blade you're wielding?" a young female voice asked derisively.

"That's enough, Hiyori," Kisuke said in reproach.

The girl just snorted and asked condescendingly, "Do you even know anything?"

Willow's eyes narrowed at the short, blonde pig-tailed girl, annoyed at her attitude and tone. "My blade is my soul weapon," she snapped. "You're a little young to be playing with knives anyway, don't you think?"

Hiyori clenched her fists in obvious anger and gritted out, "I'm older than you, freak!"

"Freak? Who you calling a freak, pip-squeak?"

"Call me short again and see what happens!" Hiyori said menacingly.

Feeling unusually antagonistic, Willow smirked as she channeled her inner Cordelia. She flicked her eyes disdainfully over the other girl and said, "I'm supposed o be scared of you? Puhleese!"

If anyone was to ask later, Kisuke would swear it was the eye roll that accompanied the red head's taunt that sent his former lieutenant over the edge.

The diminutive blonde snarled at the red head and Willow was taken aback as a white mask misted over the other girl's face. "What the hell?" she exclaimed as she watched it settle over her smug and angry features.

The blonde's eyes blazed golden in a field of pitch through the eye holes of the bone white mask as she pulled a sword from her back pointed it towards Willow. "Not so cocky now, huh?"

Willow covered her fear with bravado as she pulled her athme from its hidden sheath, and grinned darkly at the other girl.

"Not gonna hollowfy?" Hiyori sneered.

"What?" Willow asked.

"God, you really don't know anything, do you?" she taunted.

"I know enough," the red head answered shortly and willed her blade to elongate.

Hiyori didn't wait for her to be ready, she attacked in an overhand swing. Willow flung up her blade defensively, catching the other girl's sword with her own.

They stayed locked together as the blonde bore down, her sword inching closer and closer to Willow's face.

The red head pushed back, but it felt like her strength was being sapped out of her. With a grunt of effort, she managed to twist her blade and flung the other girl's blade away.

Her relief was short lived as Hiyori recovered quickly and attacked again.

Then again and again.

Each thrust was barely blocked in time as Willow struggled to keep up with the lightening quick strikes.

Willow couldn't understand what was wrong with her. Why couldn't she keep up?

Distracted, Willow missed a swipe and felt the burning sting of the other girl's blade as it bit into her shoulder.

Blood flowed down her arm and dripped into the sand at her feet.

Willow stared at the bright scarlet drops and time seemed to slow.

Rage bubbled up and blinded the red head.

No one would make her bleed again! she shouted in her mind and swung her sword in a wild arc.

It was now Hiyori's turn to back peddle and scramble to block as the enraged red head swung at her again and again, the flash of silver coming faster and faster.

The blonde looked up and met the insane, silvery purple eyes of her opponent and couldn't help the ripple of fear that shot up her spine.


End file.
